The inventions described herein generally relate to devices and methods for harvesting autograft tissue. More particularly, the inventions described herein relate to a flexible intramedullary autograft harvesting instrument and methods of using same.
Certain surgical procedures benefit from the use of harvested autograft tissue in other areas of the patient where bone growth is desired. Autograft tissue contains oseogenic tissue that has been shown to aid the development of hard osseous tissue. The autograft tissue can be placed in areas deemed appropriate by health care providers, typically surgeons, where bone growth is desired. These areas can include non-union of bone, fresh fractures, and spinal fusions. Such autograft tissue can be cancellous bone tissue removed from the intramedullary canal of the femur and tibia.
Current devices that are utilized for harvesting autograft tissue from intramedullary canals can be powered or manual devices. The manual devices can be difficult to use and hard to manipulate down the long canal of the bone. Some powered instruments used for these procedures to harvest autograft tissue do not adequately address the delicate nature of the cancellous tissue and can potentially destroy cellular viability due to cutting head velocity and cutting head geometry. In addition, powered instruments often utilize saline irrigation as a medium to help remove dislodged cancellous tissue and transport the desired tissue to a receptacle. When saline is used during the harvesting process, the resulting harvest lacks structure needed for shaping and compacting the harvested tissue. Furthermore, the saline must be squeezed out of or otherwise removed from the harvested tissue, which adds time to the procedure and potentially causes further cell viability damage.
Thus, there is a need for a surgical instrument for removing cancellous bone tissue from the intramedullary canal of the femur and tibia and a method of using the instrument that improves efficiency, eliminates or reduces damage to cellular viability, does not require saline irrigation, and to eliminates or reduces secondary steps to obtain a viable autograft tissue harvest.